Patrice Bergeron was uncharacteristically irate at the end of Monday night’s 5-3 win over the Hurricanes when Carolina forward Jeff Skinner appeared to slew-foot the Selke winner behind the Bruins’ net. Bergeron said Tuesday that he isn’t overly concerned with whether the league punishes Skinner, but one of his linemates was a little more fired up about it.

Brad Marchand, who was fined last season for slew footing Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen, said that Skinner’s behavior was nothing new.

“Skinner slew-foots all the time,” Marchand said Tuesday. “He’s always doing that to guys and I think Bergy just had enough of it. We even spoke about it before the game in the room. The guys were talking about how much he slew foots and you’ve got to watch out for him. You can see it’s very blatant. He kicks his legs out and throws him back.

“I remember I got a fine for that last year. It’s not a good play, it’s frowned upon and if you continue to do that to guys, you’re going to get it. Bergy just had enough, and it was good for Bergy to stand up for himself like that.”

Marchand called the move “a greasy play” and said he regretted doing it himself last season, noting that Skinner should break the habit.

“He’s got to stop doing that,” he said. “If he does it again, I wouldn’t be surprised if a guy got up and took exception. It’s just not a good play.”

[An underrated part of the whole fiasco: Watch Tyler Seguin, who scored an empty-netter after the incident went down, asking, “No goal?” at 0:47]

Bergeron was quite a bit more reserved in addressing the situation, saying that though Skinner had never personally slew-footed him prior to Monday, that was enough to set him off.

“It was the first time he did it [to me], but I thought it was uncalled for,” Bergeron said. “The puck wasn’t even close.”

As for a potential punishment for Skinner, Bergeron said, “I’m not going to get into that.”

“I haven’t looked at the replay,” he said. “I know he did it, but still, at the same time I don’t really care what happens. I don’t think anything’s going to happen out of it.”

As the world continues to have a laugh over pictures of Brad Marchand and the Bruins’ bar tab (did you hear they had a $100,000 bottle of champagne?) to the point where the dead horse couldn’t possibly take another blow, the Stanley Cup champions are getting ready to add a potential franchise player.

The B’s will pick ninth overall in Friday’s NHL draft, finally closing the book on the Phil Kessel trade as they add one of the top players in a draft widely considered to be a notch below that of last year’s. Given that Toronto’s selection is slotted ninth, it’s safe to say the B’s will add one Central Scoutings’ highest-rated players.

Here are the top 15 skaters in this year’s draft accoriding to Central Scouting.

Of course, Central Scouting isn’t everything, as we saw last year. The top-ranked player (Tyler Seguin) went second overall, and it looks like the Hurricanes weren’t crazy when they drafted the 34th-ranked North American skater (Jeff Skinner) seventh overall.

Whoever the Bruins take with the ninth pick (assuming, as Peter Chiarelli indicated Thursday, they stay put), don’t expect him to be in Boston next season. Chiarelli told reporters in Minnesota that based on the players he expected to be on the board at No. 9, the player the B’s select will not be NHL ready. That means bad news for Seguin, who jokingly expressed hope on breakup day that someone else could be ‘the kid’ next season and that everyone would be on the draft pick’s case instead of his.

Chiarelli said his intention is to draft the best available player, and given that this draft is top-heavy when it comes to defense, that player may be a blueliner. Picking defense would give the B’s a blue-chipper in an area in which it organizationally does not have a sure-fire star in the making, and it would also be somewhat of a deviation for Chiarelli. The highest the Bruins’ GM has selected a defenseman was 35th overall, when the B’s traded up in the second round to grab Tommy Cross 35th overall.

If the B’s spend the ninth pick on a defenseman, you can bet your bippy theTomas Kaberlerumors will swirl, and there will obviously be two easy arguments. If the team has a young puck-mover (we’ll get to the players below) with star potential a year or two away, perhaps they could try to go with Steven Kampfer next season (and beyond) and let Kaberle walk. On the other hand, the Bruins happen to have just won the Stanley Cup, and the Vezina winner isn’t getting any younger. There isn’t much of a window closing for the Bruins given that they are good and young both offensively and behind Tim Thomas (remember Tuukka Rask?), but they certainly want to win now.

With all that being said, here are some of the guys who have been common Bruins’ selections in mock drafts and/or might make sense for the B’s at No. 9:

An offensive-minded defenseman, Murphy’s 26 goals were the most among OHL blueliners this past season. Considered a plus-skater and strong passer, he could eventually offer more than the Bruins are currently getting out of Kaberle on the power play. The Bruins certainly showed in the Kaberle deal that a defenseman who can help the offense is a priority, so landing one for the long term would be a wise move if Murphy is still on the board. Given that he’s ranked 9th by Central Scouting among North American skaters, it could be close. Murphy is also a right-handed shot. The Bruins’ blue line was lefty-dominant last season, withJohnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid (and, at points, Kampfer) the only righty defensemen in the lineup.

Beaulieu is another strong-skating defenseman, though his speed won’t get confused with that of Murphy. He still brings an impressive offensive skill set to the blue line, and he certainly offers more size than Murphy. He would most certainly be the puck-moving defenseman of the future if the B’s were to select him.

Another center? With the Bruins, you never know. You have to figure that Seguin will eventually become a full-time center once he’s done being eased in, but there are enough question marks in the future to make selecting a center not seem so crazy. Excluding Marc Savardgiven all the uncertainty, Patrice Bergeronand Seguin are the only pivots signed past next season (David Krejci will be a restricted free agent, whileChris KellyandGregory Campbell will be unrestricted).

The bulkiest of the blueliners featured in this sample, many things you read about about Siemens will suggest he’s behind some of the other defensemen in this draft as far as both development and potential go. Still, he’s strong, and though he doesn’t bring the same bells and whistles that guys like Murphy and Beaulieu do, he could still be a welcome presence on Claude Julien‘s blue line eventually.

By Mike Petraglia | Comments Off on Brad Marchand picks up first significant award – Bruins 7th Player Award

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After scoring 21 goals and adding 19 assists in 72 games, Bruins winger Brad Marchand was honored as the 2010-11 Bruins “Seventh Player Award” given to the Bruins player who goes above and beyond the call of duty and exceeded expectations, as voted on by Bruins fans.

Technically still a rookie, Marchand has earned the trust of his coaching staff by playing the left wing on the team’s second line, playing with Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi.

Marchand celebrated the honor by picking up his 20th assist on Boston’s first goal Saturday, a score by Mark Recchi.

Marchand is expected to receive consideration for the NHL’s Calder Trophy, awarded to the league’s top rookie. The favorites are considered Carolina’s Jeff Skinner and San Jose’s Logan Couture.

By DJ Bean | Comments Off on Peter Chiarelli glad to see ‘deserving’ Patrice Bergeron get a rest at All-Star break

As the names are called one by one by Eric Staal and Nicklas Lidstrom Friday night, the All-Star rosters will take shape, and Bruins fans will find out whether Tim Thomas and Zdeno Charawill be teammates as usual, or whether they’ll end up going against one another come Sunday.

Yet some around these parts had been wondering whether the B’s might have ended up with a third player in the pool of names come Friday in Patrice Bergeron. With forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Ales Hemsky all bowing out due to injury and Jarome Iginla skipping the weekend to tend to an ill family member, Bergeron’s name came up across the web as a potential replacement. Philadelphia’s Danny Briere ended up getting the nod to replace Iginla, while Martin Havlat, Jeff Skinner, and Paul Stastny replaced the other three.

In all reality, the 25-year-old was a semi-long shot to head to Raleigh based on pure numbers despite having a great season for B’s. Bergeron leads the Bruins with 40 points and is tied for the league lead among forwards with a plus-21 rating. His point total fell short of Briere (45), Havlat (44) and Stastny (43), while Skinner had just as many as Bergeron. Skinner, who in his rookie season has emerged as one of the Hurricanes’ top forwards, held an edge over Bergeron based on location.

While Bergeron potentially could have been taking in the All-Star atmosphere with his teammates in Thomas, Chara and Tyler Seguin (the latter of whom’s talents will be showcased in the SuperSkills event on Saturday night), he will instead get the breather that many players can benefit from this time of year. His general manager has no problem with that.

‘He’s deserving of it, but he also deserves a rest,’ Peter Chiarelli said this week. ‘As a manager, you don’t mind if he’s not going, but he’s deserving.’

Bergeron is on pace for 66 points this year. He had 70 or more points in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 season.

After a botched play in the neutral zone while shorthanded and a Daniel Paille turnover, the Hurricanes had no difficulty regaining possession and setting up Jeff Skinner’s seventh goal of the season, to make it 1-0 after a period of play.

Skinner was chosen seventh overall in June’s draft and leads all rookies in scoring.

Nathan Horton had perhaps the best scoring opportunity of the period, as he gathered a Zdeno Chara shot off the boards, but was unable to put it past Ward, who was caught out of position. The Hurricanes goaltender came up big on a number of other plays, notably a high blast from Andrew Ference through traffic and stops on point-blank wristers from Milan Lucic and Michael Ryder.

Tim Thomas wasn’t quite as busy, as he saw only six shots in the period. The goal came with 15.8 seconds left in the period, and in the midst of a power play caused by a Blake Wheeler holding call. The B’s put 12 on Ward.